


Who you gonna call?

by BarPurple



Series: Halloween House of Horror 2018 [9]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-08-04 02:42:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16338281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarPurple/pseuds/BarPurple
Summary: Picking a Halloween costume is a serious business for the kids of Storybrooke.





	Who you gonna call?

“Guys! Guys! We have to do Ghostbusters for Halloween this year!”

Neal and Gideon looked up from their card game. Alex was in a tizzy, which wasn’t like her. They’d considered ghost busters for their costumes, but it was still September so there was no rush to decide.

Neal dropped his cards on the table and asked; “Why so keen?”

Alex grabbed a pillow from the box and flopped down on to the treehouse floor. She let out a massive sigh as she got herself comfortable; “Because my mom has started wanting to measure me so she can alter that horrendous Cinderella costume she made me wear last year.”

Gideon snorted a laugh which earned him a glare from Alex; “You don’t know how lucky you are that your folks have never made you dress up as their Disney version.”

Neal nodded in sympathy, he’d suffered his fair share of Prince Charming costumes over the years.

Gid shrugged; “Mama and Papa aren’t big fans of Disney. Mama doesn’t like it because they made Papa all hairy.”

“Emma says your mom is a scaly.”

Alex and Gid frowned at Neal’s odd comment. Gid bit his lip while he considered it and then shook his head; “No, Papa had the scales over There. Emma knows that she saw him.”

Neal huffed; “It’s what she said. Dad’s ears went all red and Mom told her off for saying it.”

The kids shared a knowing look, and all said together; “Weird grown up thing.”

Alex clapped her hands; “So back to the point can we do Ghostbusters for Halloween?”

Neal nodded rapidly; he agreed with Alex if they presented a united costume idea then his parents wouldn’t try and wheedle him into dressing as Prince Charming, or even worse Hook.

Gid kept a perfectly blank face for almost a minute. Just as his friends opened their mouths to start badgering him he grinned and nodded.

“Who you gonna call?”

-x-x-

Gold bit off the final thread and carefully stabbed the needle into the pincushion. The pincushion was a plain square stuffed with raw wool to help keep the needles sharp. Belle had confiscated his preferred pincushion, apparently it didn’t matter how annoying Hook was being, it wasn’t good to make a voodoo doll of him, even if it was spelled to only transfer a tiny percentage of the pain to said irritating pirate. Gold had only done it because Hook had taken to calling Gideon ‘croclet’. Henry, young Neal and Belle had told him to knock it off, but he’d persisted; hence the voodoo pincushion. A few well-placed jabs had gotten the message through the pirate’s thick skull.

Gold shook out the beige jump suit with a smile. This was Neal’s costume and the last one he had to finish. He’d sewn them all by hand because of the ban on magical costumes after last year’s debacle. He still felt a wee bit smut that it had been Blue’s magic that had screwed up and gifted the wearer the powers associated with their costumes. It had taken hours to get a coven worth of suger high witches back on the ground.

With the costumes done Gold turned his attention to the props. The proton packs Belle had made by hand, but he wanted to give the kids a little bit of Halloween magic, so he conjured a trap for them filled with a little surprise just in case Regina had decided to go against the spirit of the holiday and hand out apples again. Personally, he thought the former Evil Queen giving apples to children was in poor taste, but Regina insisted that they were a perfectly good healthy treat. Gold and his sweet tooth agreed with the kids, the only apples that should grace Halloween were the toffee variety.

“Let’s see how she deals with our little friend.”

He allowed himself a small impish giggle. This was going to be fun.

-x-x-

Gid, Alex and Neal were hyper by sheer proximity to their candy haul. The bags emblazoned with the Ghostbusters logo were bulging with full sized candy bars and lollypops. Granny had made a batch of her famous cinder toffee and treated the three of them to massive blocks because they had done the Ghostbusters dance for her and the dinner patrons. Their last stop was Regina’s house since that was just down the road from Gid’s house where they were having a haunted sleep over.

They rang the bell and posed like they had at every house. When Regina answered the door the three of them yelled; “Who you gonna call? Trick or treat!“

“My aren’t you three such cute little ghost catchers.”

Behind her Henry rolled his eyes. Mom had never got the name right even when him and Violet had made her watch the reboot. He still wasn’t sure if she was doing it on purpose or if it was just some odd blind spot, she could remember all the characters in Star Wars after all.

Henry cringed when she offered his uncles and their best friend the bowl of apples. All the other callers tonight had been given chocolate and sweets. This must be Mom’s passive aggressive way of disapproving of the fact the Grandfather and Belle were hosting the kids sleep over and movie marathon tonight.

Henry shivered, his Author’s senses were tingling. Very politely the three kids refused the apples. Alex stepped forward; “Apples are not treats on Halloween.”

Regina straightened up and raised an eyebrow at her; “I say they are if you don’t want them you can go without.”

Henry watched as Neal caught Alex’s shoulder and tugged her backwards. Gideon stepped forward in a way that instantly put Henry in mind of his grandfather in full Mr Gold mode. Henry was almost certain he saw a glint of a gold tooth in his uncle’s smile.

“By the contractual terms of this holiday; if a treat is not provided, then you must suffer a trick. Under the cordial use of magic act in Storybrooke I am hereby delivering fair warning of an impending trick. Would you like to reconsider your offering, dearie?”

It was probably the ‘dearie’ that did it. Regina wasn’t the only one in town who reacted badly to that word, but she was by far the prickliest. Henry took a step to the right and knew he’d made a good choice when Neal gave him a huge wink.

Regina laughed and bent down to give Gideon a condescending sneer.

“I’ll take your little trick. Croclet.”

Henry’s first instinct was to grab his mom and run and hide under the dining room table. His second instinct was to screw his eyes shut and cover his ears with his hands. He ignored both of those and braced himself for whatever was about to happen. Gideon nodded and slowly lifted the Ghostbuster’s trap he was holding.

“Under the terms of the Halloween contract we will now deliver your trick.”

Gideon handed the trap to Alex who gracefully slid it into the hallway. The trap sat there unmoving for just long enough to be uncomfortable. Henry recognised his grandfather’s touch in that bit of showmanship. In a sudden flare of light, the trap opened and a very familiar green shape flew out.

Henry ducked behind the open front door as Slimer turned in the air and hurtled towards his mom. Regina huffed and threw a casual fireball at the green ghost. No one apart from Regina was surprised by the way Slimer dealt with the flaming ball of magic; he ate it and kept flying towards Regina.

“Oh please.”

Regina waved a hand and was very annoyed when the normal transportation smoke didn’t appear. Slimer was too close for her to do anything other than swear under her breath

The green apparition blasted through her and flew off into the sky cackling. Henry watch him suddenly vanish and heard the trap behind him snap shut. He lowered his gaze and tried his best not to laugh. His uncles and Alex weren’t even attempting to control their giggles. Regina was covered head to toe in translucent green slime. She wiped her face and spluttered out a mouthful of the gunk. It took another three swipes of her hands before her face was vaguely clear. She flicked her hand and Henry only just managed to dart out of the way.

“Not a word from you.”

Henry gave her a regal bow that under other circumstances she would have been proud of. With all the dignity of a queen she swivelled on her heal and haughtily gave the kids a regal glare.

Snap

Regina sagged at the sound of a camera, but the glare was back in full force when she saw Rumple’s grin as he lowered the polaroid camera.

“I’ll make you a copy if you’d like.”

“I’d rather you destroyed that one and the negative, Rumple.”

“Sorry dearie, I wasn’t talking to you.”

Rumple craned his head to look over Regina’s slime drenched shoulder, will a grin that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a pumpkin he said; “A copy for you and Violet, Henry? And are you coming with us for movie night? Belle tells me we are starting with ‘High Spirits’.”

Henry took one look at the tense line of his Mom’s shoulders and the way her hands were clawing into fists before he grabbed his coat and edged past her. He braved the slime to plant a quick kiss near her cheek.

“I’ll see you later Mom. Have fun at Aesop’s with Mom and Grandma.”

Henry herded his uncles and sort of aunt down to the sidewalk, leaving Grandfather to trade snark with his Mom. Once they were out of earshot Henry pulled the giggling kids to a halt and asked; “Okay. Important question. Does Belle know about this?”

Gideon and his friends fell about rolling on the floor in howls of laughter. It took a minute for Gid to surface and in between gasping for air say; “It was Mama’s idea!”

Neal clambered up from the ground using Gid as support and added; “But Gid’s Dad thinks it was his. So don’t tell him.”

Alex used her friends to get off the floor and sucked in a deep breath; “Belle had Gid enchant Mister Gold’s camera so it sent that photo to everyone’s email.”

The three kids burst into fresh gales of laughter as they staggered towards the pink house. Henry pulled his phone from his pocket but before he could check his email Violet called him. He didn’t even have chance to say hello before his true love said; “You were there! Was is a slimy as it looked?”

Henry grinned and jogged after his uncles and sort of aunt; “Yeah it was gross. I don’t think Mom will be handing out apples next year.”

“Good. We’ve told her that’s mean I’ll see you in a bit I’m at the pink palace I can hear the terrible trio.”

Henry could see her on the porch, but he didn’t hang up the phone until he’d said; “Love you.”

Behind him he heard his grandfather say; “Love you sweetheart see you in a moment.”

Henry turned around to smile at Rumple. There was no embarrassment on Rumple’s face as he stowed his phone in his pocket. Rumple fell into step with Henry, he didn’t say anything but there was an understanding that they both approved of telling the love of your life that you loved them at every given opportunity.

“How long is it gonna take Mom to wash the slime out?”

The only answer he got was Rumple’s twittering giggle and an impish grin. The idea that the slime would linger was re-enforced by Belle cackling like a witch on a blasted heath every time someone showed the photos around during movie night.


End file.
